Monday, December 7, 2009

Winter Meetings

The baseball industry woke up to snow this morning in Indianapolis, but that's done nothing to cool the Hot Stove. Rumors are already flying around the lobby, and it's just getting started.

The important thing to remember during this week is that rumors are just that - rumors. Most of what you read or hear this week won't come true, so don't get too worked up about it. In fact, most of the news coming out of here won't be entirely reliable. Even this. In fact, you're wasting your time right now by reading this sentence.

Ok, so you get the point.

Actually, this week in baseball news can be highly entertaining, if that's the way you choose to take it. So settle in, if you're reading this back in San Diego, be happy you're not in Indy, and enjoy the rumors. Just don't take them too seriously.

Good luck with the meetings. I think it might be interesting to the readers to post some observations about working with, and styles of, Jed versus Kevin.

There seems to be a very interesting back and forth (almost literally) between the Red Sox and Padres from a baseball operations perspective and, although Jed was never with the Padres, he worked closely with Theo and Larry in Boston who, obviously, were San Diego guys for some time.

Do you have any insight on the baseball operations vibes/styles between the two teams. With two clubs on opposite ends of market size, it's interesting to see how baseball operations styles play out between the two cities.

There were a few reasons why we didn't select anyone today. First and foremost, though there were a handful of intriguing players, we didn't see the one that was both a great fit in 2010 and had plenty of upside. Secondly, our team is in a much different position than we were a year ago in that a number of our young players have seized jobs, and we expect to give them every opportunity to lock those positions down next spring and summer. Lastly, we have to manage our roster, and fortunately with the trades we made last summer and the advancement of some of our minor league players, the tail end of our roster now has more talent than it has had in a while.

I was excited that the Padres acquired Mark Worrell with his unconventional delivery as part of the Kahlil Greene trade, so I was surprised to see that he was allowed to walk as a free agent yesterday.

Please DO NOT trade Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox. They and the Yankees are already good enough, why give them any more great players even if you do get some decent young players back in return.vr, Xei

hi Paul, hope you had a great holiday season, I was reading that Oregon State left-hander Josh Osich will be having tommy john surgery, some had projected him as a first rounder, what do you think? should the Padres use a late round pick on him an offer him a contract full of incentives? It is like stealing a 1st rounder if you get him, by the way, what are the odds of a full recovery with TJ surgeries?

... is encouraging for 2010. But it makes me want to ask how one of our top prospects gets thru the minor league system and then has a "newfound dedication to conditioning" ... why doesn't this seem to be common amongst minor leaguers? Is just "youth being young"?

This Q&A with Frank Howard at BP seems applicable ...

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=10057

BP: Being a power hitter, did you see your job solely as driving in runs, with relatively little attention paid to getting on base?

FH: No, I didn't view it that way. I was just young and immature; I didn't know any different. I didn't become a big-league hitter until I was 28-30 years old and I should have been one when I was 24-25. If I had it all to do over again—most guys say they wouldn't, but I would—I’d have made some adjustments earlier in my career as a hitter. I didn't become a professional hitter in the big leagues until I was 28. I should have been one much earlier, but I just didn't pay enough attention to detail. The guys who make those adjustments early in their career, most of them are in Cooperstown right now. They became great Hall of Fame players, because they not only had exceptional skill, they also had great baseball acumen.

Durango was actually signed as a 2B, but we moved him to the OF shortly thereafter. Due to other players in the system, he has been forced to play a lot of corner OF, but we believe his future is in CF. He's made great strides there and should really benefit from playing that spot everyday in AAA this season.